I saw gunman who shot my daddy

Amanda-Jayne Williams-Gater was upstairs in the lounge of their home in Holtye Road, East Grinstead.

She was watching EastEnders just before 8pm and heard her father's car pull into the drive.

She heard him shut the gate before walking up to the front door.

A shot rang out, followed by another three seconds later.

She said: "I heard a loud bang like a firecracker. Then I heard someone running and shouting, 'No, no, get away from me, not again!'

It was daddy and he swore. He said, 'Leave me alone, get away from me'."

Mrs Williams-Gater looked out to see her father lying sideways near the front door with gunshot wounds to his neck.

The gunman was still there.

Mrs Williams-Gater, 29, said: "He was cocking the barrel in his left hand. It was smoking from the end. His body didn't move. I watched him for about 15 seconds."

"Then he rocked and I flinched and dropped the curtain and I ran to dial 999."

Thus began an eight-year battle for justice by the family.

A hitman has emerged as a prime suspect in the unsolved murder.

Paul Garfield-Jones, an East Grinstead antiques dealer, was arrested two hours after the 1996 murder but was never charged.

At yesterday's inquest on Mr Watson, Sussex Police revealed Garfield-Jones, 42, had featured prominently in their inquiries.

He is serving 17 years for the attempted shotgun murder of a man in Surrey, a contract he accepted for just £200.

Detective Inspector Philip Mays told the inquest there had been "significant" intelligence and admissions of who the killer was but there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Garfield-Jones was linked to Mr Watson, 54, after a burglary at the millionaire's business in East Grinstead in 1995.

He was charged with handling stolen property from the break-in and Mr Watson was to give evidence. He was attacked with a stun gun but ignored warnings not to testify.

Two months before the trial, he was gunned down.

Two hours after the shooting, police went to Garfield-Jones's home and found clothes he had been wearing in a washing machine.

Mr Watson's widow Linda, 50, interrupted the inquest, demanding to know why, if there was evidence against other suspects, police decided to charge her and her stepdaughter with the killing.

Coroner Martin Milward warned he would exclude her if there was one more interruption.

The two women were found not guilty of murder when no evidence was offered at crown court and both have since been highly critical of Sussex Police.

Mrs Watson's solicitor Mathew Knight said the case against the women was based on the "barmy" hypothesis that Mr Watson was shot from the balcony of his home where the two women were preparing the evening meal.

The balcony, he said, was 25ft away yet the evidence pointed to the killer being just a few feet away when he twice pulled the trigger.

Mr Knight accused Sussex Police of "backside covering" and said the two women had been put through hell. He said there was and never had been any evidence against them.

Mr Mays insisted the prosecution was based largely on ballistic evidence that shots were fired from the balcony.

Subsequent tests by the Metropolitan Police indicated one shot was fired on a path leading to the house and the second was fired close to where Mr Watson's body was found.

Mr Mays said another ballistics expert said the gunman stood close to French doors at the side of the house and because there were so many versions, none could be relied on.

The coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing and rejected Mr Knight's call for comment on the fact Garfield-Jones had been freed on bail when Mr Watson was attacked and on the "inexplicable" decision to prosecute Mrs Watson and her stepdaughter.

Earlier, Mrs Watson testified how she heard a resounding boom as her husband was blasted by a shotgun.

The two women made frantic phone calls to emergency services but when none turned up they called friends and relatives.

Mr Watson's son Julian said: "Linda phoned me and said something terrible had happened and I should come right away." He took a taxi straight to the house.

Colin Daniels, of De La Warr Road, East Grinstead, was watching EastEnders and said: "My wife dashed in and said a man was in Linda's garden with a shotgun - could I drive round and sound my car's horn to frighten the man away.

"I did not want to go. I thought I would get shot. But I did.

"I was told the police had been called so I felt a little better but driving there I thought 'this is stupid'."

Mr Daniels sounded his car horn and heard Mr Watson's daughter shouting to him and pointing to where her father lay dead.

He said: "I thought the gunman was still around and I was nervous. I did not want to be there."

He drove in and saw the body: "I walked to Richard and saw a massive wound to the side of his neck. His eyes were open. I was pretty sure he was dead."

Mr Daniels went inside the house and said it was more than half-an-hour before police arrived.

Ian Gater, Amanda's father-in-law, of Ashdown Chase, Nutley, near Uckfield, was in his car when he spotted a police car in a layby half-a-mile away from the Watson house.

He could not believe no officers were there when he arrived and drove back to the patrol car.

He said: "I asked the officer if he could help.

"He said he was fully aware of what had happened but there was nothing he could do."

Mr Gater went back to the house: "I found Richard in the garden lying on the grass, on his back. I knelt beside him and held his hand. It was warm.

"There was a hole in his neck. A shot at close range had taken his neck away. I felt for a pulse but there was nothing. No one could have survived that injury." Mr Gater broke down in tears as he said he made calls to the emergency services on his mobile phone but got no answer. Finally a doctor arrived - "I said quick, quick but he just told me to shut up.

"He then put his car in reverse and backed away."

Mr Gater placed his coat over Mr Watson to "provide him with some dignity" and Mrs Watson gave him a duvet to put over him.

Mr Gater then heard shouting from armed Sussex Police and he followed their orders to get inside the house.

He claimed Mr Watson's body had been moved closer to the house and the crime scene had been "damaged" before it had properly been examined.

Mr Gater and Mr Daniels were praised by Mrs Watson's solicitor for their bravery in responding to her calls for help.

A statement from Yvonne Barber was read in which she said she had seen a man wearing a black balaclava and carrying a sports holdall as she drove nearby.

Police believe he was black and was the same man seen by Amanda-Jayne with a smoking shotgun after the shooting.

After the hearing Mr Mays said Sussex Police had apologised to the family for the force's "failing in certain parts of the inquiry".

Mrs Watson said: "I feel utterly failed by the police.

"I would like to say I have some faith left in them but sadly that is not the case."